I know you all are getting sick of doing challenges, but I'm not going to let you off easy this summer. I'll be starting up a new book club here soon and I wanted to get you off to a good start to this summer's gardening season with a little party.Now, you may certainly charge me with having fallen off my rocker with this latest idea, but you have to admit... you are intrigued. Golden showers? Hmmm.
Here's the story. Many of us are gardening - growing food to help reduce our grocery bills as well as limit the amount of CO2 used in growing and shipping food to us. In addition, there is the added value of food security and food safety. But, for many of us, it's just plain ol' fun!
What you may or may not know is that studies indicate that each person’s waste fluids (aka: urine) can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year’s supply of wheat and maize for that person. Other scientific studies in Finland showed that using human urine as fertilizer on food crops is perfectly safe, acceptable and desirable because of the nutrition benefits. If you are a fan of Sharon's Casaubon's Book, you probably already know the value of free nitrogen:
The thing is, one of the scariest elements of the forthcoming energy peak is that we are terrifically dependent on anhydrous ammonia and other artificial nitrogen sources, mostly derived from natural gas, to feed ourselves. If we are to keep eating, we need to find another source of nitrogen. Conveniently, the artificial nitrogens that have been supporting the human populace (in our food) gets recycled through our bodies and comes back out in highly usable form. You just have to dilute it 1-10 to keep it from burning your plants.
Of course, knowing and doing are two different things. That's why I'm here to give you a reason and explanation for why you are going to finally try this on your own. At home. So, when the spouse/kids/neighbor/friends ask you about it, just point your finger (again) at me. I don't mind.
I can hear the "Damn you, Crunchy!"s already. Yes, I love you, too.
Party Planning
Here's how it works. On June 21st, collect your urine in a handy dandy container of your choosing. Depending on how big your garden is you may want to enlist the help of family and friends. That's the party part. But it is optional for those with a shy bladder.Dilute it with water as per Sharon's instructions above (preferably some sort of grey water - perhaps using your saved shower warmup water) and apply to your garden. Voilà! Then check back here on June 22nd for a full report.
You can turn this into as big of an event as you want. Since it's also the Summer Solstice that weekend, turn your Golden Showers Garden Party into a BBQ. Now's your chance to inform your friends about the value of their own effluents. And, who doesn't like peeing? Really.
As per usual, sign up in the comments and I'll add you to the sidebar under something innocuous like "Liquid Gold Lovers" so's as not to embarrass you. For those of you who want to share the love, go ahead and grab the banner for display.
If you want to put the graphic up on your blog, just paste the following code:
<a href="http://crunchychicken.blogspot.com/2008/06/golden-showers-garden-party.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprgZN5B8jHzxB_xV5jwXpifltvDQwL6K9G6er-KT9MRtnd0rHDGflEQQn2o43QOeyvol7-wbqfeFPYUwOq5NTvtzDXXWWjU2lpxfrsO8lQsGcDdo9wgRDX4q9HSeydWEc53hzjhZPmgM/s200/GoldenBannerNew.jpg" border="0" alt="Golden Showers Garden Party - 6/21/08" /></a>
So, go forth, plan some partying and spread some liquid sunshine. Pretty soon, your plants will be smiling, too :)
115 comments:
Rethinking retirement? :-) If I'm not up for the cloth wipes, do ya think I'm up for this one. Just not there yet, Crunchola, but I wish you happy sprinkling.
I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to hear Chile's voice here.
Yeah, um... unfortunately I need to get a bunch of different nutrients into our soil and we're just about to mix in a whole truck load of Cedar Grove Soil Booster. So I will probably have to wait much later before the plants need a pure nitrogen boost...
Someday I will have a compost toilet, as I do see your point. Golden shower party, though... LOL, Liquid Gold Lovers sounds (not) so innocuous!!
But this challenge does seem to be following your pattern lately... I still hold we should consider calling you the Crunchy Onion.
I won't be participating, but, I have an excuse! I do not have a garden, therefore I just don't have anything to ... shower on.
LOL, this is awesome! Baby is peeing in the toilet training pot right now, i was just wondering if i could recycle that somehow, now I will. I could bottle it and sell in at the city wide garage sale on June 22nd? Ultra fine- peepee de bebe!
I was starting to think that I just might be full-throttle for the next challenge... but I just can't... between my germaphobe-husband and the thought of eating a carrot pulled right out of the peed-on ground... I can't do it right now. Give me a while to stew it over... a long while... ugh... maybe I'll spread some "liquid gold" on the ground AFTER harvest... maybe. But, SSHHHHH, don't tell my husband!
Sorry to be a 'Party Pooper', but I'm pretty sure my 4 year old boy is already nitrogen-ing my planter boxes. He's a big fan of peeing on things - especially outside.
Does give new meaning to the old saying "stop pissing on my cornflakes!" though.
Best of luck with your garden party! Hope you're soon singing in the rain. :-)
lol
I want to participate just for the cool graphics! But I don't think my CSA members want to be quite that sustainable.
"Son You gotta quit peeing on the tomaters. You're killing them."
Some of the best advice my dad ever gave me.
Kinky Chicky-babe Kinky. I will make sure I go out and write my name in the soil on my tomaters on the 21st.
Way ahead of you *lolol* I've been having my husband pee on the compost pile for years. We did the pee experiment last year on a tomato plant and it produced almost twice that of it's brethren.
We're loving the personal free fertilizer bit.
my girlfriend and i are sooo in on this one. i've been wanting to do it since sharon mentioned it, and here's just the challenge to push us over the edge!
and somehow it seems like less of a "hassle" than switching to cloth wipes did. hmm...
Alrighty, I'm delurking to say I'm in. It doesn't look like you are getting a huge number of takers and this is something that is completely feasible in my world. Kinda.... I'll have to work out the logistics.
BTW... I only recently found your blog via Sharon's and I'm glad you are able to stick around. It's nice to hear via the interwebs, I'm really not crazy!
count me in. i talked the kids into this little gem a couple of months ago and oh how my garden does grow! the boys each have their own repurposed detergent bottle and every morning they're responsible for emptying them. as an added benefit, the squirrels and possums have stopped raiding my garden now that there's a constant human presence.
Not to be a comment whore, but I always used to plant a few snow peas in my grandma's front flower bed so when walking on the sidewalk in front of her house I would grab a pea pod, walk in the house and announce I took a pea in the front yard.
Years ago I rented a little converted garage from a guy who had the most luxurious, productive tomatoes I had ever seen growing in the side yard between his house and mine. One evening, he....um...showed me his secret. Well, it was pretty dark so I didn't get the full display :).
I'm definitely in.
Normal, healthy pee is sterile so don't worry about "bugs". I'm in and so is the family. The chemistry of it is perfect.
I'll be looking for that bottled peepee de bebe at the store nearest me. :)
Wow. Just last night I mentioned to my husband that I should write a post about hanging our toilet paper out to dry, and now I read about peeing on the garden. I will definitely join you in this one. The boy is just starting to go pee in the potty instead of on the floor (diapers? what are those?), so perhaps I can just scoop it out of the toilet water when he is done and it will already be diluted. Hubby shouldn't have a problem, I just need to provide him with a soda bottle by the bed and that will be plenty. Now how to get the girls to do it? And how much of the diluted pee do you give to each plant? If I ever start my period up again (baby is 19 months old), I can put that in the mix, too, right?
Sorry Crunch but think I'll be passing on this one and sticking to the cover crops, compost and rotation.
This one sounds doable. I wonder if it will deter wildlife, especially rabbits and opossums, so I guess I will find out.
I'm in.
Might this work with upside down tomatoes in containers? We don't have a garden, but a balcony...and I love cloth wipes, by the way.
I read about this in Greywater Guerrilla's book "Dam Nation" and immediately thought, "We should do that!" I got horribly excited and showed my parents a picture which showed just how much bigger corn grows with liquid gold. *grins*
Sadly, I don't think we'll be able to do this any time soon. Our vegetables are in an allotment, and we're sharing the work/bounty with some neighbours who probably won't like the idea very much. But in the future... ^_^
OK Crunchy. At first I thought you lost your mind, but I'm convinced. Convincing the family, however, might prove to be a difficult task. My elderly neighbor has been telling my husband to pee around the garden to keep the woodchucks away, so maybe there's something to this. I won't be having a pee party, but I'll definitely give it a try and report back. Happy showers! Debbie C
Free nitrogen?! Heck yes I will try it! I forgot all about this. Thanks for the reminder. Will be quite an experiment.
And if you are interested in taking it one step further, check this out: http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html
It's a book called "Humanure" and I've got a friend in Minneapolis who has a composting toilet, a Humanure pile and an amazing garden! The first salad I ate from the garden took a little courage but it was such fun to re-name the veggies: poohcumbers, poopoli and, of course, pees!
I'll do some plants. For those of you who are hesitant to pee on carrots- sprinkle your fruit trees, berry bushes and ornamentals (at ground level).
Eva
We're in. At least for the peeing we do on our own. The partner would freak if he knew we were doing it. but we do lots of crazy stuff when he's not around. -- asrai
Oh Crunchy, you imp! Sign me up for this one day event, although I'm going to keep it low key and only in my Little Garden not my Big one. Lord help me if my family finds out about this!
Hey, does pee deter deer? I have to look into this!
I'm in. One question though, what if one is on medications... would that taint the effluent and do more harm than good?
I think my husband might actually leave me if I posed this challenge to him. He already calls me "Fundy Wendy", and frankly, I'm not even close to being in the same league as most of you eco-bloggers ;). He had a hard time when I joined the first eat local challenge. When I put the clothesline up, he was not pleased. The bucket in the shower to save water nearly sent him over the edge. I suggested cloth wipes, and he walked out of the room. When I gave him the list for the Eco-Throwdown and asked which he thought we should do, he just threw the paper in the recycling bin without a word.
Maybe I'll just save mine and sprinkle it around the fruit trees and berry bushes ... no one has to know, right?
I wont be have a 'party' but the family is in. Our corn needs a boost. If i can gather the guts I am having a Baby Shower August 2nd ... I might ask ... But what about people you know are taking birth control? Recently finished chemo? Taking high blood pressure medication? Do I really want there 'liquid gold'?
Count me in, Crunchy. I read the Humanure Handbook, but I'm not quite ready to go that far yet. Maybe this will be a step in the right direction. Kind of a natural progression from the cloth wipes, I'd say.
Yeah, this is insane . . . and makes a lot of sense.
Think about this: if you're buying 200 lbs. of soil amendments trucked in from a great distance to keep from buying 100 lbs. of food trucked in from a great distance, does growing your food locally really make sense?
Unless the entire production process utilizes locally sourced fertilizers, etc., is it really locally produced?
If, e.g., you live in Arizona and are buying peat from Canada enhance your soil, how much good is this doing?
One day!?!?! You had your girls putting in a diva cup for months, and you only want people to pee in a jar one day!?!
Sheesh, Crunch - I'm beginning to think you aren't serious about this eco thing or anything ;-).
'Course I'm in. When I was doing the CSA I used it around plants that wouldn't be sold.
Sharon
*giggle*
i'm so in! i've written to my house-family to see if i can try it in the yard; if not i'll stick to the potted plants.
does anyone know how this might work with houseplants?
Regarding people on medication - I'll do some recon on that, but my hunch is that if it gets excreted in your urine, then it's something you'll want to investigate.
I'm not sure what effect estrogen/progesterone have on plants. As for people taking something serious, you may need to find some donor urine. Might I suggest a.... party?
Sharon - I was going to do a month but I figured I'd start with some baby steps. I know you have no problems with it, but this is a major mental hurdle for many people. Like the cloth wipes, it sounds good in theory, but practice is another thing.
I suspect the idea of marking your territory is less of an issue for men than women, but that would be something fun to follow up on. Perhaps I'll do a pee poll!
Thank goodness I live by myself. Count me in. For the above ground veggies. :)
Oh, I am *so* in - anything to help my 'maters grow. I never even thought of this!
My MIL and step FIL are homesteaders in N. California and he has always peed on his compost pile. He did tell us to never pee on the garden directly. We also lived off the grid in a yurt for 3 years and did the humanure method for our composting toilet (that we made after selling off a "real" compsoting toilet). To me it seems more logical and keeps you part of the cycle of life as opposed to crapping in your water supply.
Crunchy, I really was just kidding. I figure you can work them up - and then you can explain about composting poop and using the menstrual blood from your diva cup as fertilizer.
(I'm just a solo chamber of ecological horrors today ;-))
This is going to be fun! And sorry if my joke came off wrong.
Sharon
wow. equal parts intrigued & squeamish! sign me up!
I'm in. The boy will think it is fun and we won't tell the hubby. He already thinks we are crazy enough.
Does it count as in if I start early?
Between sandy soil, lots of rain, squirrels and a cat who thinks it's her own personal litter box, my garden is in need of some assistance.
Peeing on the garden sounds like a win-win-win situation for the humans. heh.
Mr. Cheap says this is one eco-challenge he is 150 percent behind! I am in too. I'll post about it on my blog and add the banner when I get a chance.
Chile, I love the bucket w/ seat -- going to check if I can get that seat at my local sporting goods megamart when I am in the area. Sounds like a great addition to my shower decor to freak out bathroom guests. ;)
jewishfarmer, I mentioned the addition of "lady flow" to Mr. Cheap and he gave a shudder ... then grudgingly admitted it's not a bad idea.
I am with you bham meg, so glad I live alone.
I am so in on this challenge! I have been trying to figure out catching my pee and found this at the local Rite-Aid. I think it would work pretty slick to catch it and dump it in my shower bucket. Happily I no longer have toilet tissue - so I wouldn't have to keep this separate.
Like Sharon, katecontinued is in for more frequency. I am thinking of starting sooner and letting your Golden Shower Party be the culmination on Summer Solstice.
Very cool.
Hey, if any of you want to start sooner or continue long after, by all means, go for it! I just thought a one day affair would be more approachable, but fertilize away if you like!
I guess this is something I would be willing to try. A few of the plants could use some help. But sorry, there is no way I'm blogging about my experience or having any sort of party. I will definitely be waiting until I'm home alone...
Well, my husband already does it, and the dogs do plenty... I figure mine can stay in the toliet. :)
I can't wait to tell my boyfriend about this one - I think we'll both join this challenge. We've been talking about buying tomato fertilizer but this makes much more sense!
Between the two of us, we have over 70 tomato plants. I might be tying tomatoes from my yard on to Beth's plants to make her think that they are producing early (omg - wouldn't that be hilarious?)
Shhhhhh! Don't tell my hubby, but I'm totally in on this one!
What better way to celebrate the Summer Solstice than by giving your garden a bit of your very own "sunshine." ;)
HA! I LOVE you!!! I'm in!
Quick question: how often "can" we do this? Daily? Just don't want to overdo it, you know?
We love the cloth wipes btw. And WOW has it inspired conversation when we have guests! hee hee.
I'm so glad you continued blogging Crunchy. Who else would have come up with the idea of a Golden Showers Garden Party? :-)
We started doing this when I changed to cloth wipes last year. With the water shortages here in Australia it was a way of reducing the number of toilet flushes and eliminating the smelly "mellow yellow" toilet bowl.
For those who don't like the idea of eating vegetables fertilised with urine perhaps just using it on fruit trees, vines and berries would be more acceptable.prqxfz
I used to pee on the compost heap when we lived in the country but I never thought of collecting it-DUH!
I'm in.
we are way ahead... My son pees in the garden all the time no wonder my tomatos are outa control!!!
How creative! I have enough trouble remembering to water a garden let alone coordinating something like this!!
I'm lucky though, we have a Biolytix system which is basically a worm farm and a bit more that processes all our toilet and water waste. The cleaned water is pumped onto the garden automatically. Brilliant!! You can even feed it scraps in the kitchen via an Insinkerator. http://www.biolytix.com/index.php
Great system and invented here in Oz.
If you're putting it on ..er...directly, be careful not to always hit the same spot. There used to be a whole thread on the organic gardening boards about dogs & husbands causing dead spots on the lawn.
Though I have to say there will be no party at my house. We pee on the compost heap in an as-needed sort of way (one bathroom household - I believe I peed outdoors more than indoors when I was pregnant). I've lived with composting toilets, humanure toilets, camped in the woods for a week at a time...but something about the idea of saving pee in a container and carrying it outside just totally icks me out.
I'm in. And also curious how often I can do this. I'm container gardening on the balcony so it won't dissipate like a normal garden might.
Also, have you found any convenient ways to catch grey water from the sink/shower?
Remove the drain p trap under the sink and replace with a bucket.
If you can find where it goes outside you can do the same with the shower, but I believe the Crunchy recommends using a catch bucket.
Thank you very much Crunchy for disseminating this important information.
For those of you who feel that the practice is odd or unhealthy, remember the dilution part and the fact that this is standard practice in the developing world.
If it seems like something you just can't imagine doing, well as Bob Marley said, Free yourself from mental slavery. At least TRY it once. Pick a plant, see the difference within 3 or 4 days.
I'm sorry my nursery is so big and I have only so much Gold to offer.
I'll be away for the weekend, but that's something we do anyway. For those of you participating in the DivaCup challenge, blood is another wonderfully useful soil amendment. :-)
All I can say is just don't use it on the roses. They don't like pee.
Hey, Crunch... I have 4 boys. They love to pee outside. Seriously, any chance they can get. Can I just have them pee into the garden??? :o) Saves me time, we skip the whole plastic container middle man thing and I totally win this challenge!!! ;o)
Eco 'burban mom - the direct route is up to you, just don't complain if all that pee ends up burning your plants. I suppose one thing you could do after they do their business is add water to dilute it.
Let me know if I should sign you up!
oh jeez... i guess i could try. i'm a little concerned with how to clean out the container afterwards. i suppose i could continually use containers which are going into the recycling anyways... i'm not really grossed out by the whole carrying my pee thing (i mean, who doesn't give urine samples during their yearly physicals anyways?) but it's more of the whole "there's going to be pee on the thing i'm gonna eat" issue... but then again, some people drink pee when they're dehydrated and there's nothing else around. *shudders*
Brilliant :-)
I have a precocious 1 1/2 year old who *tells* me she's ready for toilet training. I reckon I can start by demonstrating and we can party all together.
If I'm lucky, I might be able to get my not-so-precocious (but infinitely lovely) 3 1/2 year old son to join in.
Triple whammy! Toilet training the kids and greening up our lives.
I think I'll start today!
I'm IN!!! I have been thinking about doing this for a while, because I'm not thrilled about the lingering odour caused by not flushing every time.
I've been looking for an appropriate container to pee into. It has to be fairly wide at the top, and it has to have a lid, because I don't want to clean up any spills. I just found a really big pickle jar that should be PERFECT!!
My son will be thrilled, my daughter will probably be completely grossed out.
I actually mentioned yesterday to a couple of men living in the same building as I that they should go pee on the compost every now and again. They just looked at me and we then had a discussion about the nitrogen needs of plants. What started the conversation was that a large dead patch in the grass in the front yard recently appeared. When Michael, friend and owner of the building asked Richard, twentysomething roommate upstairs if he was peeing out his window, Richard fessed up to it. Go pee on the compost! That's what I said.
As for using dilute pee on plants, best as I can find out, a once a week application on growing plants is fine, maybe more so depending on how much a heavy feeder the plants are. Trees and shrubs seem to be able to tolerate straight pee although I'm not sure unloading on the same plant a lot would be all that good for it. Think of the salt build up.
Anyway, I have to figure out a way to collect pee first then I'm going to try it on the corn I'm trying to grow. This is southcentral Alaska, not known for being a corn producing area. Anything I can do to help out, I'm willing to try. I'm sure all my brassicas (once they're planted) will enjoy it too!
Kerri in AK
Hi CC,
You can build with it as well, see
http://environmentalideas.blogspot.com/2008/04/ultimate-reuse-of-water.html
Let me know how you get on with it if you try! *subtle grin*
We'll do it! I had no idea, but now I'm excited to see if our liquid offerings make a difference in the growth of our veggies. In fact, I think we'll start today instead of waiting until the 21st.
Thanks for the idea!
I'm on to you now, Jennconspiracy. Feel free to tie your tomatoes to mine. I might not be fooled, but I'd love to have early tomatoes.
So the whole time I'm reading this post and comments, I'm thinking, "No way. No freakin' way. Not gonna happen." And somehow, when I got towards then end, my attitude changed to "Why the hell not?"
It's diluted. It's not going directly on the plants. I don't have to drop my drawers in public. As someone else said, not sure I'll blog about it, and I certainly won't throw a party. But okay, put me down.
At this point, I only have 4 little baby tomato plants anyway. And some cactuses. Would they like to be peed on too? (Could you please find out?) So the whole thing will take 5 minutes, tops.
Beth
Oh, and what about house plants? Can I use pee as a substitute for Miracle Gro? Will have to use something else when the plastic bottle is finally used up.
okay nitrogen great.....but are their any studies on medication, hormones, etc that might be execreted? just wondering
Any reason to think that dog urine isn't close enough to human urine to get the same benefits? If I can get the dog to pee in the garden beds, I can just hose down to approximate a 1:10 ratio (not that I wouldn't also use human, just working with what I have!) (I hose down wherever he pees if it's in the yard to dilute anyway, and he loves to hang out in the garden and eat my CRAB GRASS (currently my best crop).
having lived in Seattle, I misread the title of the post and thought "beach party!" - which I suppose was only half wrong. My entire garden here is herbs, strawberries and a couple of tomatoes in a very small bed so this may be a limited experiment.
The reusable wipes I'm reading about here is another thing entirely! Really? (gah! I feel so un-eco suddenly.)
that's the day of my daughter's 4th birthday party. we could ask all of her friends to pee in a bucket! ...
or not. ;)
i'm not sure about this one. will have to mull it over. i'd be more likely to do it if my mom wasn't going to be staying with us during this time too. she'll think i'm really off my rocker or maybe she'll be down with it. hard to say. i'll be back if i decide to join in. :)
Count me in - I want my vegies to grow (onions, not tomatoes, it's winter here). But can I say: Wow it's surprising how squeamish so many people are. Even people who read CC's blog!
I did post a reply but can't see it! Count me in!
We've self-watered our little corn plants already this spring and summer--but we'll plan on a full garden party that day!
My husband has taken an evening pee in the orchard for years. Keeps the deer away from the fruit trees. Not sure if woman pee works as well as a deer repellant.
I'm in as soon as I get back home and have a yard again...
I'll give it a try on my small container garden on my deck!
Erin
I'm in! I'll just keep it to myself and mention it to my husband later on, HAHA!
I think I'll do 1/2 the garden this way and the other half with out. To see how well it works :)
Okay, I know I've been a little whiny lately, but this one we can totally do. :) I just told my 7yo to pee in the watering bucket instead of on the brush pile, and we'll see how those tomatoes do!
Anyone know how this works in combination with fish emulsion and liquid kelp? I've been planning to use those, too.
O yeah..
Now that I know its ok. I will just have my husband pee in the water barrell in the morning, instead of the bushes.
I am in. I have wanted to use the "discards" from my DivaCup but I would probably be presented with divorce papers but I can probably get away with this easier. "The water container just looks yellow because it's discolored" will go over a lot better than it looking red and being discolored from use, haha. Thanks for all the great ideas and challenges, keep them coming.
Count me in, Crunchy! Even if it turns out to be a party for one (the others are a bit squeamish), I'll have fun! xx
I'm in. My asparagus bed could use some encouragement.
I'm in and plan to water my compost pile and fruit trees regularly with the l.g. As often as I remember!
The compost pile might be a good alternative for a lot of people - the compost pile seems like a good transition for people just not ready to pour it on their food crops.
I'm in for the P-cloths too. They are actually a lot nicer than TP - bigger area and softer.
"Fertilized" the small corn patch this morning. It was a bit startling to discover how much I pee during the day and then realize I really don't have a handy container to put it in. So I'm casting about for something and it might just end up being one of the watering cans. I don't have very many plants to use liquid gold on but more are going to be planted soon. The excess will go on the compost pile.
Huh. Guess I'm in, too.
Kerri in AK
I would be SO in on this ... except we don't have a garden, or any space for one.
Do you think it might help my one little potted ivy plant?
Love it!! Sign me up!
I agree with whoever said they started out thinking eww and now I'm thinking why not.
Count me in! I'll at least collect my own on the 21st. This may work well with another idea I had today. We've been giving the sheep and chickens (and dogs for that matter) fresh cold water a few times a day since it has been so hot here. The warm water just gets pitched out on the ground. I was thinking of designating a bucket near the animals for old water so maybe I can set it near the porch and get my future hubby to aim at it when he pees off the porch in the morning. I'm a little unsure about having him pee right in the garden. I'm training the dogs to stay out of there because the straight pee is pretty damaging. I could give him free reign on the compost pile though...here is to making this otherwise annoying habit work for me - and the garden! :)
-Jena
Ok we are in, I just told my son and hubby to pee in the bucket for the garden instead of in the orchard. Yep they love to pee around the trees. We gather our rain water for the garden so I guess I could just have them pee in the rain containers if I wanted (huh, good idea?)
Sign me up. My husband and I do this already. Maybe I can get the kids to do it for the day. They say the pee bucket stinks. We have a bedside commode we use as a urine collecting toilet. It comes with a bucket with a lid. Perfect for carrying to the garden.
Cindy in FL
I found info on www.greywaterguerrillas.com that says a ratio of 3-4 parts water for 1 part urine is safe -- have you found any info on dilution?
I'm gonna give this a try! It sounds crazy...but I'm gonna do it!! YAY!
I'll put the graphic on my blog!
I'm so doing this, will probably be a small family party with kids and DH but I didnt find out until just now, a great friend passed me the link! ahhh... next time send me a memo or something. I would have posted this in my greenthumbs group at Mommytalk.com I'm sure they would have done it too:(
I just had to be the 100th comment- do I get an prize? I am drinking extra coffee tonight at work so I can squeeze out those last few preciuos drops for tomorrow!
Did it! Think I'll continue all summer long. Just don't tell my hubby. He handled unplugging the fridge. Not sure he can handle this. Yet. :-)
I'm in. started this morning.
Well we have been doing this since you started the challenge and have collected about 12 litres so far. I've been diluting it to water the bananas and OMG I can't believe how much they love it! The citrus are doing well as is my mulberry.
We will be continuing to do this from now on :)
my hubby rotates peeing on various parts of the garden- I guess I'll hafta get him peeing in a bucket for dilution now- and eat my hat for telling him it's unhygenic. Mostly I'm queezy of the view the neighbours get of his woo-ha. But I dont mind urine (I know it's sterile) so I'm in , but the moment you suggest little fishing nets in the toilet pan and diluting poo you will be on your own my dear!
Well as it ended up we were not home on Saturday so I did this today. It really felt like going to the Dr. when I peed in a plastic bottle I pulled out of the recycling. I diluted it with the warm water out of the dog dish and gave some to my tomato plants. My fiance said the bucket by the garden was a bad idea because he is afraid the dogs will drink it. According to him (he's a farmer) he said that peeing on the compost pile would be ineffective because the nitrogen is lost very quickly if not used. We spread pig manure on the fields in the spring and have to work that in right away so there may be some truth to that. I may still use my own from time to time. :)
Alright, I'm totally on board with peeing on my own garden.
been peeing in my compost for as long as ...well its been warm enough to do the deed outside this year.
I'll up the ante and dilute a batch for the garden once a week or so.
I've been faithfully peeing in a bucket and diluting it with gray water for the past few days and immediately throwing it out on the garden in different spots (don't want pee just sitting around the house, lol). I did have a question though. Do your 10 to 1 dilution rates vary depending on the color of the pee? IE - If you drank a couple liters of water and were peeing clear, would you need to dilute it less (say, 4 to 1) than if you'd missing drinking all day and it was kind of dark?
For the record, I can't believe I'm asking about pee color on a blog post, lol.
Okay - I wasn't going to do this challenge, no way, no how.
But then I thought about my container plants and I realized they needed a little dose of fertilizer. So what did I do this weekend? I collected my wee wee, diluted it per recommendations and happily watered the containers.
I'm not going to be able to do this on a daily basis, so maybe the weekends will work better for me. I'll check in later and tell you how things are going - I mean growing!
Just found out about this the other day, and finally got rid of the company to try it out! lol!
I have a glass jar with lid for everyone in the family to pee into, then fill it up with water (I know it should be grey water -- we are working on that!) and then immediately watering a different bush or shrub or plant!
So far so good -- I love saving the water from flushing (waiting to flush in between "stinks" -- lol!)
I just logged on to your site today since Sharon Astyk is on vacation, I thought I would check you out. I am so happy to see I am not alone with in sharing golden showers with my green plantlings. lol
I read an organic farming book that mentioned it was good to do this and I have been peeing into a yogurt container for about a month, and sprinkling it on the compost or diluting it and sprinkling it on flowers or veggie plants. My partner only lasted a day or two before he stopped contributing his liquid gold. Now I feel like much less of a freak to know that so many folks are participating in this extreme recycling!!
Elena in massachusetts
A weekend or so ago some friends and I attended a local wine festival. There, hanging in front of the vineyard, was a large sign that read simply "restrooms"... we began to wonder if they were suggesting we relieve ourselves amongst the grapes. It turns out that there were port-o-potties around the corner and out of our sight, but it got us wondering about how beneficial urine might be to agriculture... and now I know.
I just saw this yesterday and was so excited that I had to share the idea with my hubby last night. Surprisingly, he agreed to try it. I'm not sure if he's actually going to contribute or if he's just indulging me and my contributions, but we'll see. Thanks, Crunchy! This is a terrific idea.
I keep a bucket in my toilet, and rinse it after each use. Fresh urine is actually very hygenic, it only becomes smelly and yuk after a while. Going to the 'toilet' in the bush is such a wonderful feeling, very natural. I actually like to pee direct on the mulch ( after dark, so as not to freak out the neighbours too much)
To be honest...we have the portable toilet company save us one 50 gallon waste tank to use for our garden...our tomatoes and squashes seem to shine the best.
I can see where this could work. I sometimes pee on my compost pile but usually I pee around the edges of my garden and chicken lot as the scent of human urine makes rabbits, possums and raccoons wary and helps to keep them out of the gardens and chicken yard.
I'm in! I've been discussing this with my husband for over a year. He is not "in". He's also on handfuls of pain meds, so I don't think I want his contribution. I will be making my deposits on the sly...not telling anyone but you. I was just thinking I needed to get an organic fertilizer...now I don't have to! BTW~you are freakin' nuts, but I SO enjoy your blog. ;)
Post a Comment